Monday, April 11, 2011

By 2013, the number of internet-connected mobile devices will exceed the number of internet-connected PCs. Apple’s App Store has paid out more than $2 billion to date to developers of mobile applications, and this is just the beginning. Mobility is the biggest disruption in the industry today and people everywhere are working, playing and learning differently thanks to mobile technologies. Whether at work or on personal time, people have high expectations for a rich and productive mobile user experience. In a recent survey of our Zend Server customers, more than 70% of respondents reported they are either delivering or planning to deliver rich mobile experiences to their users. The need to move quickly and support ever more mobile platforms creates a perfect storm for the emergence of what Gartner calls client-cloud applications*. The client represents a rich application on an internet-connected device while cloud is a set of consumed services hosted in an elastic, scalable cloud platform.

It’s only natural that developers are hungry for a flexible, productive platform that will help them deliver native, connected mobile experiences rapidly. With this in mind, at Zend we have been working closely with our partner Adobe and thanks to that collaboration we are today jointly announcing Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP (Zend Site, Adobe Site).

This new product appeals to developers who want to build creative and capable mobile apps quickly and efficiently. Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP merges the workflows of mobile client and PHP-driven cloud services, and among other things, enables its users to:

Build apps that run natively across multiple platforms and devices including iOS, Android, and Blackberry

And in case you didn’t quite notice my previous mention of iOS – yes! Adobe will enable standalone applications built with Flex on the iPhone and iPad**, and with that enable our joint customers to target a broad set of mobile devices.

I am very excited re: the possibilities this integration opens up. For a better idea of what this looks like Kevin Schroeder from Zend has created a very cool flash demo.

As I previously noted I believe mobile is going to be one of the biggest game changers, our customers clearly recognize that and we intend to be there to make them successful. PHP is ideally positioned to deliver the services to native, connected applications due to its high-productivity and proven scalability which enables the rapid delivery of optimal user experiences.

A big thank you to the Adobe team – we have made friendships through this partnership and appreciate the investment they are making in PHP. With our friends at Adobe and our ongoing development of the Zend PHP Cloud Platform, we are providing our users with the tools and development experience they need to master internet-connected mobile application development and seize the opportunities created by the mobile revolution.

The Adobe Flash Builder 4.5 for PHP bits will ship within 30 days. Register on Zend’s or Adobe’s Web site if you want us to let you know when you can download the bits.

** Adobe compiles ActionScript down to native ARM code. Once it's compiled and packaged, there's no interpreter and the resulting app is fully compliant with Apple's App Store guidelines. iOS support in Flash Builder 4.5 will ship 30 days after the product is released and will be a free update.